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Orange Tour Breakout Notes with Carey Nieuwhof

Do you do pastoral visits? Carey fell asleep while praying at a pastoral prayer in his first year of ministry. The church grew and life got busy.

God will give you more people but He won’t give you more hours.
Sticking with my top priorities for the day when email and other staff can distract me.

Opportunities is the church word for distraction.

My inability to stay focused on a task and see it through to completion is my issue.

Message prep time. People will call to meet with you but they will never call to see if you are working on your message.

Unplugging to get a day off.

If your time management is getting out of control it bleeds into your time off. Who suffers over and over again? Your family. Your health.

How do manage your time?

Most leaders who accomplish significant things aren’t balanced people. They’re passionate people. Get rid of the myth of balance.

People who find balance often lose passion.

“Set yourself on fire with passion, and people will come from miles to watch you burn.” John Wesley.

Stop just managing time.
It’s all about time. Most time management tips are about time and don’t go far enough. All leaders have the same time. The President and single mom have the same amount of time.

Maximize the output of your time. Not more hours but more passion. Do you show up at home exhausted? What if you reserved passion so that when you got home it was on like Donkey Kong?

Enjoy your downtime. Be passionate about your environment. You don’t get more hours in a day you just need to learn how to develop them.

Stop saying, “I don’t have the time.”
Instead make your internal vocabulary, “I didn’t make the time.” Internal dialog.You can make excuses or progress but you can’t make both.
If you say this out loud you will have no friends.
“I’m just not going to make time for that.”
When you say yes to something you are saying no to something else.
If you say yes to a meeting you might be saying no to a date with your wife.
Tremendously liberating.
Get honest with yourself.

Understand the work on it vs. work in it struggle.

Chart your energy.
Diminishing returns.
Hire impact in life and work. Manage your energy. Do this by charting it.Not all hours are created equal.
You are at your best at different time intervals.
Morning people vs. mourning people.

Carey gets up between 4:30 and 5:30. The most he gets done happens before 10am. Getting paid to think, communicate, and write.

Your best work probably comes at a 3 hour time block. Is that early, afternoon, late? Find the pattern in your life and optimize it.

Not all tasks are created equal. There are things you love and things you hate in your job.
What do you love most about your job? 1:1 meetings with high impact leaders? Of your top 10 tasks for your job where do they fall on your passion scale? How do the tasks leave you feeling? Energized or drained. Monitor your tasks.

“Leaders who reach their highest impact do what they’re best at when they’re at their best.”

Start managing your energy
Sync up your energy and time.

Stop reacting.

Decide ahead of time who you will and won’t meet with. No one will ever ask you to complete your top priorities; they’re only going to ask you to complete theirs.

Spend 80% of your people time with the people who give you 80% of your results.

We are so busy putting out fires that we can’t water those who are growing.

Make a fixed calendar. Decide how you will spend your time before others decide for you. Don’t live in reactive mode. Decide today how you are spending next week. Don’t let next week happen to you.